This invention relates generally to sewing and more specifically to a zipper stitching guide.
The ultimate goal of a seamstress is to construct a garment which, when finished, does not appear to have been homemade. While many errors in sewing may not be obvious and can even be hidden, the stitching of the zipper is almost always visible and is the one tell-tale sign of whether a garment is purchased or homemade.
Many sewing aids to use with zippers have been on the market for a long time. After purchasing the aids and experimenting with them, however, most seamstresses return to the tried and true method of zipper installation. Zipper installation has been both improved and simplified to some degree, but the necessity of stitching a straight line or lines on top of the zipper has never changed. Assurance of a straight line requires measuring and marking on the right side of the fabric a one-fourth inch line or lines to stitch over if the garment is to look professional.
Marking the fabric is a time-consuming endeavor; the longer the zipper, the more time-consuming. The most satisfactory of marking fabrics today are the felt-tip markers which are water-soluble. Some fabrics are stained by the markers, however, necessitating testing the marker on the inside of the fabric before use.
The older method of marking fabrics with tailoring chalk is unsatisfactory because the chalk does not mark as easily or successfully as the felt-tip markers, depending on the fabric. Further, it is sometimes difficult to remove chalk marks after sewing over them.
Finally, removing the marking, while simple enough, is just one more step which must be taken when installing a zipper.
It is an object of the present invention to shorten the time required to insert a zipper by eliminating the necessity of having to measure and mark stithing lines and then removing the marking after the zipper is completed. The zipper is installed in a neat, professional manner which even a beginning seamstress can accomplish. All a seamstress must do is stitch immediately outside the guide of the present invention.
There is no guesswork involved in the present invention. There are perforations for pinning the guide to the garment for either the lapped or centered zipper application. The perforations are aligned to be pinned directly over the seam enclosing the zipper.
The zipper guide may also be used as a ruler. While rulers made specifically for sewing are available, they are made of metal and impossible to use for measuring rounded areas and curves, or, for example, the diameter of the arm hole of a garment. The present invention can be made of lightweight plastic material which is pliable and can accomplish any type of measuring--straight lines, curves, etc.
The standard seam allowance set for all patterns is 5/8 inch. The width of the present invention is such that it provides a handy reference tool for seam allowances.